So how do you guys set up your strats?

[jmartyg]

I was messing around with the demo for guitar rig 2 today, and i decided that i wanted to do some dives. Rather than me dig through boxes and pull my Mexican Squier out of storage, i figured it would be easier to throw the bar on a Jay Turser strat copy and loosen the claw (I tightened it as far as it would go 5 minutes after i got it home when i bought it).

I usually don't noodle with those things since most of what i play doesn't require one and the extra 5 minutes tuning can sometimes be really hair pulling.

Anyway, my Squier is set in a way that the back of the bridge is floating about 5cm from the body. I can pull up and down and releasing usually puts it back in place so it doesn't go too far out of tune. usually a quick slap on the arm puts it back in. I always scratched my head on why people say you can never stay in tune with one. Maybe i just accidentally had it setup perfectly and didn't know.

Anyway, I'm lazy. I already adjusted the 6 bridge screws so the outer ones would be 1/4 turn from raising the bridge from the body and the inner 4 were 1/2 turn. all i did was loosen the claw until the bridge started to raise and then tightened the claw screws in one full turn. This way i can only go down in pitch with it. I assumed it would be easier to keep in tune. Boy was i wrong. This guitar is usually tuned down half a step, and one dive and release and it throws it somewhere to 'down 1/4 a step.'

I don't know if it's the cheap-o bridge having wrongly designed pivot or that you can't really expect it to work unless it's floating a little.

So as the title says, how do you people have your strat style bridges setup? 2,3,4 or 5 springs, using only 2 screws or how do you have the 6 adjusted if they are all there? how far is it off the body? etc..

[sumgai]

jm,

My Strat is set so that back edge is about 1" up from the body. That would be approximately 2½cm - your 5cm translates to nearly 2", and that's a whopping big amount, in my personal book. With mine, I can go up almost a third on every string, and down at least a 4th on every string, the low E being able to go down more than a 5th.

I use 10-46 gauge strings, the fulcrum has just the two stock screw-in posts (with very little extra clearance for pivoting), and I have only two of the stock springs installed. Those springs are set in 2nd and 4th holes of the inertia block, and sit on the same claw teeth. The back-bottom of the inertia block is beveled pretty deeply, giving me even more room to dive.

I don't use a whammy bar because it's in the way for my style of playing, and I can just as easily use my right-hand heel to lever the back up for diving. It's not as easy as the bar, but there's no hassle factor with the bar getting in the way, either.

This setup, using Dean Markley Blue Steel strings, let's me go as wild as needful (not often, but it's nice to have the capability), and yet it's always in tune. It's almost criminal how other players loath me because my guitar simply won't go out of tune, no matter how badly the whammy is abused. ;D

HTH


sumgai

[Ripper]

Sumgai...

Like you, I push on the bridge to get my warbled effect. The only thing is, the tone goes up, not down. Like pulling up on the whammy bar instead of what most of us do....push down.

[jmartyg]

eeek.. middle of the night typing.. i realyl meant 5mm. half a cm

[sumgai]

jm,

eeek.. middle of the night typing.. i realyl meant 5mm. half a cm

Needs more cowbell! ;D You can safely go up as far as you wish.

One thing I neglected to mention in my previous post...... after raising the bridge by so much, the neck needs readjusting to match. Fortunately for me, there's an adjustment screw in the guitar's body, located under the very end of the neck's heel. I simply loosen all four neck screws, twist the adjustment (with an Allen wrench), and tighten the four screws. Test and repeat as necessary.

If you need to remove the neck and shim it, so be it. Longer and more frustrating, having to detune then retune the strings, but in the end, still worth it.

And FWIW, I don't feel it's a PITA to have to spend an extra minute or minute and a half to tune the strings up, as the bridge keeps moving during the process. After so many years of doing this, I can get it all done in jig time - practice makes perfect, and all that jizz-jazz. ;D

HTH


sumgai

[sumgai]

deep,

I push on the bridge to get my warbled effect. The only thing is, the tone goes up, not down. Like pulling up on the whammy bar instead of what most of us do....push down.

Warble is. Don't matter if it's up or down.......... well, not to the audience, anyhoo. If you exaggerate, then it might become undesirable, but for the subtle nuance, or more properly, for the tasty-ness, the effect is damned hard to beat! ;D


sumgai

[mlrpa]

My cheapie strat copy, a Turbo by Sunlite, has the typical 6 screw bridge. I like it flat to the body, and use 4 springs with the claw as close to the body as possible. I also use graphite in the nut to help reduce friction, which in turn helps keep it in tune when I gently use the trem. For a warble effect, I use something with a floyd. I personally don't think strat styled bridges are meant for the warble effect.

[ChrisK]

Warble is. Don't matter if it's up or down.......... well, not to the audience, anyhoo. If you exaggerate, then it might become undesirable, but for the subtle nuance, or more properly, for the tasty-ness, the effect is damned hard to beat!

Warble, Wibrato.

What a Wicket of Wookie Wusses!

Just bend/flex the neck. Heck'ski, the original Tele's didn't even have truss rods.

well, not to the audience, anyhoo

Hmmm....So all this tone crap is just a bunch of self-serving stuff thereof?

subtle nuance

?Department of Redundancy Department?

[murrayatuptown]

Well, I left my other question under newbie Tremelo, but this might have been better.

How do people set the Strat-6-screw-tremelo dual saddle height screws for neck radius? I was told mine is probably 9.5" radius.

I got the tuning, and obsessed getting the two saddle height screws the same within 0.002" with a digital caliper (height of Allen screw top from bridge plate)...then someone told me they should be off a bit so the saddles match the neck curvature.

I can't see it well enough to do it visually, and the saddle spread looks wider to me at the bridge than at the neck...which makes sense.

I think I would like to convince myself how much to change them before I mess with it.

If I leave them even, I guess the string leans a bit in the saddle v-groove. (Some don't have a groove, I guess)...



Thanks

Murray

[sumgai]

Murray,

Without pictures, it might be a bit hard to comprehend this, but......

Lighter gauge strings don't need to be as far from the fingerboard as the heavier strings. You'll find that you can set the plain strings a little lower, and still have no buzzing, but the wound strings will need to be a bit higher. It might be only 1/32^nd of an inch, but that's enough right there to say 'the bridge saddles don't have to all sit at the same height, as adjusted for the neck radius.'

If they are sitting at the same height, commensurate with the neck radius, then some strings are too low, or others could be lower - your call on that one.

One other thing. As you've told us, your bridge floats. If/when you raise the pitch via modulating the bridge with your right hand, you lower all of the strings toward the fingerboard. This could cause some buzzing, if you first set up your strings at their lowest point (when the bridge is at rest). As it happens, accomodating this "feature" (it's not a bug!) in your setup leaves the strings high enough such that you can now play a mean slide when called for! ;D

Just something to think about.



HTH



sumgai

[murrayatuptown]

OK, I will think about that...

I'm not the player...the teens who test-drove it didn't complain about fret buzz. I wish I had written down exactly how/what I set up...I got a bunch of instructions from multiple people and an old Fender manual...I had measured neck relief, string height and pickup height but I now realize that effort was worth documenting so I can do something close if I need to again. Good luck figuring out where that info came from & where it went!

I think I have one more dilemma to solve, and I'll go work on that.

PICS will have to done soon...

Murray

[thetragichero]

Just bend/flex the neck. Heck'ski, the original Tele's didn't even have truss rods.

this is what i do... went to guitar center to purchase the extra springs so i could have five instead of three and not so many tuning/intonation nightmares
xoxo


--chris

[axekicker]

After playing Floyds for so long, I've gone back to stock Fender bridges on a lot of my guitars. The whammy is a big part of my playing, virtually all my guitars have vibratos of one kind or another. I set my bridges up so that the low E will flap when the bar is pushed all the way down (you can't dive bomb unless the string flaps IMHO), and pull up a full third on each string. If you can't get a good dive bomb, try bending the end of your bar up a little so you get more dive out of it. Tension is one of those things that differs with bridges and springs. I have a Fernandes Fat Tele that I'm playing these days with a Wilkinson solid steel bridge and tone block and ONE spring, which is a first. I can literally work the bar with my pinky finger and not break a sweat. But usual three springs in a V config is pretty standard. On a six-screw strat bridge, you can try loosening the middle screws while keeping the two end screws tight for more of a two-point feel, which is what David Gilmour does. And make sure you lubricate all contact points and moving parts. Big Bend's Nut Sauce works great, but use it sparingly as it ain't cheap.